Gluten Free Asian Inspired Noodle Soup Recipe

A few weeks ago our son, who is not known for his interest in cooking, came up to me and said, "I REALLY want noodle soup.  Can we make some?"  I realized that he just finished watching a Kung Fu Panda episode where Po has a dream about making Chinese noodle soup.  Eager to encourage his culinary interest, we hit the pantry to see what we could come up with.

About half an hour later we were all enjoying darn respectable bowls of noodle soup!  Totally gluten free and full of vegetables, too.  This is a very flexible "recipe" (I put that in quotes because I think humanity has been making noodle soup since we discovered fire) that is perfect for a quick meal at home, and you don't need to visit an Asian market if you don't have one in your neighborhood.

Boil 1 carton of vegetable broth
Take off the heat and toss in a fist full of rice noodles (the Thai Kitchen brand is available in major supermarkets.  Any thickness works.)
Stir in chopped up cabbage, carrots cut into ribbons with a peeler, and any veggies you like!
Add some chopped up garlic and a dash of Chinese Five Spice.
Allow to sit for 8 minutes until the noodles are soft, and enjoy!

This is "fast food" that I can get behind!  Some great add-ins are shrimp, leftover cooked chicken, more veggies, tofu, bean sprouts... you name it!  To keep it gluten free, avoid soy sauce and imitation crab, which contain wheat.

Enjoy!
-Debbie Chialtas

Insurance Based Medicine and the world of the ICD

There is a lot to be said about the ability to seek medical care under the protection and financial aid of a medical insurance policy.  In fact the cost of medicine has soared so high in this country that it is very difficult to get help without such support.  But there is one unfortunate part about it all that may actually be working to undermine the success of the therapy and the overall well-being of the patient.  In short I am talking about the ICD-9 code fee structure which dictates how the doctor is paid and therefore how the patient is treated. 

So what is an ICD-9 code?  In short it is a diagnosis code.  For example I often bill insurance policies for neck pain which has the ICD-9 code 723.1.  They seem to like this one and generally pay readily for this diagnosis.  I find that other codes don’t work as well so I end up limited by what diagnosis codes each insurance policy will pay for.  It puts the practitioner in a bind if the patient comes in with a concern that does not fit nicely into the insurance company’s idea of a covered medical condition.  The patient may be suffering nonetheless.   

Now what we also need to understand is that these codes are really just a numerical description of a set of symptoms and not the cause of the problem.  You may have neck pain, low back pain, migraine headache, lower left quadrant abdominal pain, or anxiety to name a few.  But these are just the end product of something at a more base level that created the problem.  Let me put it this way…  Let’s say a person comes in complaining of migraine headaches.  Acupuncture, chiropractic, massage, prescription medications, etc. may just help the symptom (ie. the pain) but what if that migraine is brought on by an unknown gluten sensitivity reaction?  Or what if it is from a chemical sensitivity with a concurrent autoimmune condition?  Or what if it is hormonal?  What are the ICD-9 codes for looking into this kind of thing?  Is there a code for a practitioner to run a predictive autoimmune antibody test or a gluten sensitivity panel?  Well no. These would be considered medically unnecessary given the lack of association that the mainstream puts on these types of conditions, and by the basic standard of care that we receive in the medical clinics today.   But what if these tests held the answer for this patient?  What if missing this little tidbit of info led the patient to years or even a lifetime of medical treatments to quell the symptoms?  Wouldn’t that end up costing more in the end and never really solve the problem?  Wouldn’t that potentially lead to a continuation of suffering for the patient who pays good money to receive help?  Wouldn’t you think that the patient would expect to have their problem fixed (not just moderated) if there were ways to do so?  Well I certainly do and I personally expect nothing less than good medicine if I am paying for services or suffering a medical concern.  I would hope that you agree.

I bring this up today just to shed a bit more light on our medical experience.  Most all of us are completely unaware of how the system works. All we know if that we either have insurance or we don’t!  And those of us that do are usually pretty discouraged to find that the coverage isn’t as good as the several hundred dollars a month premium should probably be.  The medical experience is one of the only services that we consumers have no knowledge about cost before we buy!  In fact the doctors and nurses don’t even know the price.  There is a billing department for that and they generally don’t work with the public.  It is therefore extremely difficult to know before you buy what you are paying.  Where is the empowerment in that? 

So take this little tidbit and go to your medical provider understanding the situation.  Understand that the service you are receiving may just be dictated by what the insurance company wants to consider “medically necessary.”  Understand that the practitioner may not be able to order the proper testing, or provide the proper service under these circumstances.  Understand that most all of medicine is symptom based relief and very little is being done to address the underlying cause.  Do you really always want to use your insurance for your health care?  Insurance companies dominate the daily business and practice of the medical provider.  And believe me when I tell you that it is usually not in the best interest of the patient.  Keep the insurance for emergencies.  That is what it is there  for. But honor yourself and go to a practitioner who is able to order the tests needed and provide the services required to fix your particular concern.  Anything less is just not good medicine!

Gluten Free Rainbow Mochi Cake Recipe

Hi!  This is Jim's wife, Debbie, again.  :)  Lately we have been going to potluck parties and there is always a need for gluten free items at potlucks!  So many appetizers and sweets are wheat based.  As a lover of color (you can see my blog here), I was really attracted to this recipe in one of our cookbooks.  Not only is it pretty, but it's a nice simple sweet treat with a yummy, chewy texture.  It's fun to play with different color combinations and mold shapes.  More on that at the end of the recipe...

Rainbow Mochi Rice Cake
from The Gluten-Free Bible

1 cup rice flour
3/4 cup sugar
2/3 cup tapioca flour
pinch of salt
1 can unsweetened coconut milk
1/4 to 1/2 cup water
food coloring (liquid, gel, or paste all work fine)

1) Spray 8"x4" loaf pan or four 8 oz custard cups with nonstick cooking spray.  Set up a steamer large enough to hold pan or cups over large saucepan of water.*

2) Combine sweet rice flour, sugar, tapioca flour, and salt in large bowl.  Add coconut milk and whisk to combine.  Whisk in water by tablespoons until batter is smooth and the consistency of heavy cream.

3) Divide batter into 3 or 4 medium bowls or measuring cups.  Add different food coloring to each bowl and whisk to blend completely.  Bring water in saucepan to a boil.

4) Pour one layer of colored batter into pan.  Place in steamer, cover and reduce heat to a simmer.  Steam about 8 minutes or until mochi is set in center.  Carefully uncover steamer and gently touch center of mochi to test doneness.

5) Repeat with each color until all batter is used and set.

6) Remove and cool in fridge for about an hour (or chill in an ice bath if you're in a rush like I always am!).  Loosen sides of mochi from pan and invert onto a serving dish.  It is easiest to slice with a plastic knife.

*I used a loaf pan and 3 layers for mini cakes which are cut in 1" x 1/2" slices.  The main photo is in ramekins which I sliced into wedges cake-style.  For a steamer, I used a deep sauce pan with a lid and set my pan or ramekins directly onto the floor of the pan with about 2" deep water, and covered with the pan lid.  Enjoy!!

Delicious Gluten Free Pancakes

Hi!  This is Debbie, Jim's wife.  Since Jim learned he has Celiac Disease we have been experimenting with wheat flour substitutes, especially for breakfast.  We LOVE Pamela's Biscuit Mix but it's quite expensive and I have always loved my scratch yogurt pancake recipe.  Recently we have found that rice flour is really versatile and can be a great wheat flour replacement!  So here's our pancake recipe that we all love and would never hesitate to serve any of our wheat loving friends.  I appreciate the use of yogurt which adds a good dose of protein.

Delicious Gluten Free Pancakes
(The original recipe, using wheat flour, is from The Big Book of Recipes for Babies, Toddlers, and Children by Bridget Wardley and Judy More)

1 egg
3/4 cup plain yogurt
1/2 cup milk
1 Tablespoon vegetable oil (or whatever oil you like)
1 cup rice flour
1/2 tsp baking soda

Mix the liquid ingredients, then stir in the flour and baking soda.  Cook in a griddle or pan as usual for pancakes.

Serves 2 or can be easily doubled. The above platter shows all the pancakes I made from a single batch. I love having leftovers and popping them in the toaster oven for a quick breakfast or snack.  Enjoy!

Are You Overweight? Or Mostly Just Inflamed?

By far one of the most common questions that I get is if I can help with weight loss.  It seems to be something that most people want to do at some point in their lives, but also something that people want to see happen quickly and without a great deal of effort.  Perhaps that is just human nature.  But what I see going on out there is that people will tend to start down some particular path, usually involving a gym membership or a fancy piece of equipment, only to lose faith in their program after a month or so with very little to show for it in the end!  It can be very frustrating and bad for moral in general to fail time after time with something so important as one’s health and/or positive self image. So what gives?  Why is it so tough sometimes to lose the weight and keep it off?  Well besides the fact that being an American already predisposes us to be overweight, I want to point out one potentially significant obstacle here that many of you have probably never heard of before.

When considering weight loss there are many opinions floating around out there.  And not just opinions, but well known medical concepts.  First, you have your calorie counters. They have been around a long time and take themselves very seriously.  They know the calorie counts for every food imaginable and even have iPhone apps to help them along the way.  I don’t tend like this mindset because there is just too much going on besides calorie in calorie out to warrant such strict counting.  And I am sad to say that eating just one cookie which contains a few hundred calories would require quite a lengthy jog to burn off.  And that was just one cookie!  It just does not seem like a realistic model to me.  But you also have the low fat people, and the exercise people, and the oatmeal and grapefruit people, and the pre-made meals in boxes people, and the who knows what else people.  And then on the medical side you could be doing everything right, but have a low thyroid condition or an undiagnosed blood sugar condition.  All of these things can be something to consider as individual factors in weight loss although in my opinion there are usually many of these spinning at the same time.  Focusing on one and losing sight of the complicated web of disharmony associated with weight problems will lead to failure every time.  Just increasing your physical activity and eating well may not work in some people who have some of these underlying mechanisms that need fixing first. 

But aside from all of those factors, there is one concept that trumps all of them. This one thing will always precede these factors and will in time lead to weight gain and many other serious health concerns.  Simply put I am talking about inflammation.  And by inflammation I am not talking about a sore ankle.  Yes, that is inflammation too, but systemic inflammation is a different beast entirely. Basically what we are talking about here are little chemicals that the immune system creates that are released into the blood and float around the body wreaking havoc!  There are many different types of these little inflammatory chemicals (called cytokines) but there are two that I want to detail for you here which have a role in weight gain but also work to promote many terrible diseases. 

There are two inflammatory cytokines called Interlukin 1 (IL-1) and Necrosis Factor Kappa Beta (NF-kB) which will actually promote the production of each other.  So once they are activated they then feed forward and activate the other and so on and so forth creating a viscous cycle that is very difficult to turn off.  These cycles are started very often through inflamed and irritated intestines found as a result of the very same foods that get us fat in the first place!  The Standard American Diet (SAD) is extremely inflammatory to the stomach and intestines and has the potential to lead to full blown systemic inflammation. This is one reason we Americans suffer many of the highest rates of deadly diseases on the planet, yet spend much more on healthcare than any other country.  It’s the food people!  And yet people are yelling in the streets about losing the precious Twinkie! 

So what do IL-1 and NF-kB have to do with weight gain?   I find this part to be quite interesting…  Both of these cytokines have the ability to weaken the body’s Insulin Receptors (eventually leading to Insulin Resistance and/or Type II Diabetes).  This in turn will make the body product more Triglycerides which is the stored form of fat found in the fat cells.  When the body can’t use the sugars it has eaten either by this Insulin Resistance concept, or simply by eating too much junk, it stores it as fat in the form of Triglycerides.  (These can cheaply and easily be screened for on a basic blood test. They should be below 100 on a fasting blood test.)  So here you have an inflammatory influence telling the body to store fat which is totally aside from diet and lifestyle!  But that is just the beginning.  Here comes the insult.  These very same cytokines also turn down the activity of an enzyme called Hormone Sensitive Lipase whose job it is to break down stored Triglycerides from within the fat cells into usable energy.  So we have a scenario where we are telling our bodies to store fat at the very same time as we are stopping ourselves from burning it!  You can see the problem.  And to make matters worse…   The more fat the more inflammation!

So now you have an inflamed person (the average American by the way) who has these viscous cycles going on and decides to exercise every day to lose weight.  In fact they plan to run a 10K.  They are 30 pounds overweight and the running hurts to say the least!  This can lead to physical stress to the body causing more inflammation and not only a continuation of the problem but oftentimes a stop to the activity as well.  Add to this the possibility that they may have gluten or dairy sensitivities which are also independently able to stimulate IL-1/NF-kB activity and are directly associated with weight gain in many people.  How much weight can this person realistically lose under these circumstances?  I don’t care what Jenny Craig puts in a pre-packaged, frozen, calorie precise meal.  They are doing nothing to fix the underlying inflammation problem! Am I saying to forget healthy diet and exercise?  Absolutely not.  But I am saying that without considering a few things first you may be doing it in the wrong order and walking (or jogging) yourself into another failed attempt at weight loss.  That I am stating absolutely.

So there is no quick fix.  Weight loss isn’t easy.  And it should take a long time to accomplish!  Any program or miracle pill that produces quick results I am personally afraid of.  In fact losing weight too quickly creates harmful, toxic and inflammatory consequences.  So be careful!  The first step in ANY weight loss program should be finding and fixing the inflammatory roadblocks.  Doing this will not only allow these physiological mechanisms to correct themselves, but will give you more energy, clarity of mind and efficiency in the long run to carry out your particular program.  Not to mention fat will be lost more quickly and with less effort.  How is it done?  Well there are only two compounds currently known that have the ability to effectively shut down the IL-1/NF-kB loop. These compounds are Curcumin, found in the spice Turmeric, and Resveratrol commonly know as the beneficial compound in red wine. When used together there is a powerful synergistic effect.  But these must be taken in high dose.  And at the same time other inflammatory considerations must also be moderated such as a potential gluten sensitivity or a blood sugar condition for example.  So that is where a good blood chemistry analysis can do wonders.  And I would love to start helping find some of these things for you.  Just pick up the phone and call and we can get started!  I have the products you should consider and the knowledge to work up a blood chemistry report for you in wellness based terms.  I will help you not only lose weight, but begin a lifestyle of health and wellness which is the real answer to these concerns.  If we focus on the underlying health the weight should naturally fall away.  But if we focus squarely on the symptom of weight gain and try to act on it directly, failure is unfortunately often the result.  Think holistically, wellness based, slow but steady, and positive minded and allow me to be your guide. 

If you have any questions or would like to schedule a consultation (you can be anywhere in the country), please email me, Jim Chialtas, at jchialtas@gmail.com.  Thank you!